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Amuse-Bouches: This week’s hottest restaurant news bites
A Mexican Tequila pop-up, game-changing charcuterie and Asian Sunday roasts capture this week’s best London restaurant offerings.
Casa Wardour
Favourite celebrity haunt 100 Wardour Street launches a brand new Mexican pop-up this month – Casa Wardour, in partnership with Don Julio Tequila. Featuring Tequila-based cocktails, Mexican food, and live DJs, the venue will be transformed with Mexican plants and cacti and traditional poncho blankets and cushions. There is also rumoured to be a mini replica of Don Julio González’s Chevrolet truck from the 1940’s. Lighting up the menu are the likes of Baja fish taco, black bean and sweet potato quesadilla, tacos al pastor and a special Don Julio Blanco Tequila and lime jelly tart. Db loves the Don Dragon cocktail, made with Don Julio Blanco, mango puree, lemon juice, dragon jam and raspberry powder.
Manteca
Good news for charcuterie fans. Manteca, the pop-up from Chris Leach and David Carter, gets a new permanent home in Shoreditch next month, following a series of residencies across London. Focusing on nose to tail cooking, hand rolled pastas and fire-cooked sharing cuts, a glass-panelled hanging room will show off the team’s in-house butchery. Diners can expect immense charcuterie offerings including sticks of coppiette, a Roman-style pork jerky, cured with Campari and fennel seeds, alongside dishes like nduja steamed mussels, pickled chilli and duck sausage, and pig skin ragu. Non-meat dishes such as brown crab cacio e pepe and seaweed tagliatelle with smoked seaweed butter will also be on offer. Don’t miss the Sicilian Old Fashioned, made with Averna, rye whisky, triple sec and orange syrup.
The Bourbon
This new East London dive bar specialises in rare bourbons and smokehouse BBQ dishes, with a kitchen run by ex-Ivy sous chef Sam Gordon. A backbar filled with an impressive collection of more than 40 bourbons, including some rare 23-year-old drops, provides the liquid refreshment, against a soundtrack of smooth soul. On the menu is oodles of classic smokehouse fare including brisket, ribs and burnt ends slathered in homemade sauces, like paprika aioli, which are also available to buy and take home. Wine, cocktails and American beers like Pabst Blue Ribbon and Oskar Blues are also on offer is whiskey isn’t your thing.
Mr Ji
The Soho-based Asian restaurant, which opened earlier this year, will launch Asian-inspired Sunday roasts on the first Sunday of every month from 3 Oct. Taking influence from Cantonese-style roasted meats, guests can dive into a feasting menu of four different meats: Glossy roast duck with an umami dip, crispy roast pork belly with sweet mustard, Taiwanese sausage with garlic mayo and a signature soy poached chicken with ginger and spring onion dipping sauce. All served with unlimited jasmine rice with a hint of salted duck egg. The Sunday roasts are priced at £67.50 for two people, including a welcome drink each. During the week, guests can tuck into fried panko-crusted chicken hearts with sweet curry sauce and a Sichuan Burger, made with a pineapple bun, fried chicken thigh and cucumber salad.
The Seafood Bar
Amsterdam seafood expert Fons de Visscher brings his considerable clout to a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse on Dean Street, Soho this month. The Seafood Bar, the restaurant group’s first international venture outside the Netherlands, spans two floors, with white marble throughout and its whole schtick is fresh seafood, without the high price tag. Shellfish takes the limelight on the menu with decadent ‘fruits de mer’ platters, featuring lobster, North Sea crab, razor clams, langoustines, Dutch shrimps and more bringing the ‘wow’ factor. Oysters matured in the ‘claires’ in France, and a variety of crustaceans and fish cooked on a La Plancha grill pair beautifully with wines from across the world including Ruinart Champagne, Austrian Grüner Veltliner, and Provençal rosé wines. We hear there are also plans for late night oyster parties….
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